Taking Ockham’s Razor to Sarah Palin Haters

Since his departure from the Washington Times, Stacy McCain has become perhaps the most skilled attention whore in all the blogosphere.

Yeah, I just wrote that. And put it on the Internet.

In seeking to explain why Ken Layne and Andrew Sullivan seem to loathe Sarah Palin and, in particular, make sport of her Down Syndrome suffering infant son, Trig, Stacy puts forth a pop psychology theory in four part harmony involving gay psychology, the fear of spinsterdom, and tips for hunting hillbillies.

Taking Ockham’s Razor (or, in the case of certain residents of West Virginia, Ockham’s Toothbrush) to the problem, however, a simpler explanation arises: They do it for the same reason Stacy writes posts like this one.

First, regardless of intelligence and education, people have prejudices based on their own experience and tend to judge people who don’t conform to their expectations rather harshly. Sarah Palin does not dress, talk, or act like a governor — much less a vice presidential candidate — is supposed to.

Second, saying outrageous things that cultured people aren’t supposed to say out loud is an excellent way of attracting and sustaining attention. Holding forth the view that Sarah Palin chose to carry Trig to term after learning that he had Down Syndrome, just like everyone assumed all along, is not going to get you many clickthroughs.

Correction: An earlier version of the post had Sullivan, Layne, and Ana Marie Cox pushing the Trig Palin birth origin conspiracy story. In fact, Layne merely reprinted a cartoon involving Trig Palin. I don’t think Cox had anything to do with this at all, aside from being the original Wonkette.

So James, you’re saying that if someone doesn’t adhere to someone else’s stereotype of what a governor should look like, then it’s okay to make ugly Photoshop slurs of their Down Syndrome infant?

Since Barack Obama doesn’t “look like” a typical president (for one thing, he isn’t older than Moses), that must mean it’s okay to Photoshop the White House lawn filled with watermelons. Just applying your logic, James.

So, making that crack about toothbrushes and West Virginians doesn’t put you in the same category as those who make nasty photoshops of a Down Syndrome baby? I detect more than a whiff of academic snobbery here.

she is a social conservative (really, really far to the right, far enough to actually be a little scary to the folks on the left)
she is grossly inarticulate (which may or may not indicate genuine ignorance if not stupidity)
she was unprepared for her first major interviews, and the VP debate (leaving the lasting impression that she is either ignorant, stupid, or overconfident, arrogant, ignorant and stupid)
she calls Democrats socialists (indicating she is either uninformed about socialists, or is a rabid unyielding ideologue)

I’d add that she is coming across as very thin skinned because of her reactions to the stupid Letterman joke and the photoshopping. But I don’t think this made anyone hate her who didn’t already hate her.

When someone comes across as an arrogant, ignorant, stupid, right-wing ideologue, it’s pretty easy to hate them, especially when they have a little cheer leading section that loves her.

That she is a pro-life woman gets under a few people’s skin as if she has betrayed her gender (why is abortion considered a woman’s issue).

And her looks… I’m really curious to see whether she remains so prominent as her looks fade with age.

I think she comes off as a LOVING mother who is protecting her children from some pretty disgusting stuff directed at them ONLY because of who Mrs. Palin is and what she represents.

Try to think of it this way (yes, TRY to think): She got pregnant and then found out the child she was carrying had a chromosomal disorder that cannot be cured.

She decided to have the baby (10% of mothers do this) and then she is constantly being accused of “using the baby” as a political prop.

She wants to go out with her family in public to a public venue, but she isn’t allowed to do that without a stupid, pathetic has-been late night talk show host making remarks about her daughter being raped, in additon to remarks about her “slutty appearance”.

This is a sitting governor of the largest state in the US we are talking about. Last time I checked, the first amendment is for everyone. Oh, I see…except for conservative women who espouse the values that made this land great. THOSE women will be vilified, lied about, photoshopped in disgusting ways, and joked about in horrific ways. The intent is to silence us.

Gustopher: When a House & Senate controlled by Democrats and a Democrat President take over [or threaten to take over] many of the big companies in the US (hey, forget those bankruptcy laws and stuff) then in my opinion, the government is bcoming SOCIALIST. HELLO???? Exactly what definition of socialism are you using?

When the government is touted as being able to take care of EVERYTHING, then that is also socialistic.

Abortion is a women’s issue because the Femnists have made it one with their constant mantra of “men are irrelavent”.

Correction: What President Obama and the Congress are doing with their actions is more like communism than socialism. However, I believe a strong argument can be made that the Dems are socialists because of their attitude that the goverment is going to solve EVERYTHING.

Aside: Back when I was starting BitsBlog, I gave brief thought to calling it “Occam’s After Shave”. Then I found out about a blogspotter called “Occam’s Toothbrush” which was popular at the time. Nah… a little too close.

I don’t think that Governor Palin comes off as thin skinned.

Of course not. But as Reynolds grumbled yesterday, what IS it with the left and that kid?

But here’s the test of the central point of Stacy’s piece…. …the test of opposites. (Given Stacy’s references to homosexuality there’s an entire minefield of double entendre, all on that one line! Anyway….)

Posit with me a Downs Syndome kid named Trig Pelosi, and do the math. Think the reaction to that nonsense would be the same calm resignation we see from Palin?

No, I don’t think so, either.

And more than just Palin… we’d see Democrats of all stripes venting outrage at volume 11. As it is, we have none of that… what we do have is the apparently acceptable leftist hate spewed at Palin and family.

“Sarah Palin does not dress, talk, or act like a governor — much less a vice presidential candidate — is supposed to.”

Hmmmm. Given the myriad governors now stretched across our great land and the “doofus” factor of our current VP, what is the standard of how they should act? Yet, I think I know what angle your spinning here. As EYE-gor said as the light bulb went off, “Oh, I see”.

Do you also say Froderick?
No, it’s Frederick.
Well, why isn’t it Froderick?
Because–it just isn’t.

So, I suppose the test for acting like a governor – much less a vice presidential candidate- is what you say it is because — it just is. Oh. We see.

“she is grossly inarticulate”
Hoo, boy!! Do you mean compared to the TOTUS? “uhm, er, ah, umm . . .” or to Joe Biden, or John F’n Kerry (who by the way served in Vietnam)?
She is no more no less articulate than the average politician.
“she was unprepared for her first major interviews, and the VP debate” ??
Fine. Next election, let Rush Limbaugh conduct the first interview with the Dem candidates and edit the tape and see how they come off.

You, sir, are a fine example of the dangers of cranio-rectal inversion.

Can you link to ANY post by Andrew Sullivan where he “makes sport of her Down Syndrome suffering infant son, Trig”?

It’s a rewrite of a previous erroneous sentence that tries to come up with a name for two very different things that Sullivan and Layne are engaged in. Maybe it’s inartful.

He’s written like 6000 posts on the subject of Trig Palin’s provenance. It was, for a time, seemingly all he wrote about. Not sure whether that truly constitutes “making sport” but it’s bizarre and sad.

Oh look, Gustopher has touched several raw nerves around here…who knew that the governor of Alaska was now Saint Sarah, She who dare not be criticized…I really hope she runs for and wins the GOP presidential nomination in 2012…that’ll be so much fun…

Mr. Joyner, I must respectfully disagree with your conclusion regarding Stacy McCain. As long as that disgustingly vile reptile who calls himself “Perez Hilton” is drawing a breath and able to reach his rabid little fingers to a keyboard he has no peer as the most skilled attention whore in the blogosphere. Mr. McCain would have to reach some rather astounding depths to come within a country mile of that level of desperate need for attention.

As for your comments on Governor Palin, Gustaphson, I would challenge you to consider the following regarding Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi:

she is a socialist (really, really far to the left, far enough to actually be a little scary to the folks on the right)

she was unprepared for her first major challenge on the CIA briefings, and folded up like a junior high diva when challenged to defend her comments (leaving the lasting impression that she is either ignorant, stupid, or overconfident, arrogant, ignorant and stupid)

she calls Republicans “partisan” (indicating she is either hasn’t the cranial power for honest self-review, or is a rabid unyielding ideologue)

she promised to “drain the swamp”, which has been translated by her inaction to mean “I’ll only pursue ethics investigations of the OTHER party” (proving for anyone who can read that she lies as easily as she draws in air. How she can ignore the ethics cesspool that Jack Murtha, Charles Rangel, and James Moran are in is beyond me. She just drained the swamp and poured it some place else, hoping we’d stop smelling the stench.)

I’d add that she is coming across as a venal, money grabbing, hack politician, for whom the word “bi-partisan” means “do it my way or else”. But I don’t think this made anyone hate her who didn’t already hate her.

When someone comes across as an arrogant, ignorant, stupid, left-wing ideologue, it’s pretty easy to hate them, especially when they have a blind as a bat to thug politics cheer leading section that loves her.

And her looks… is she really in a lengthy contest with Joan Rivers to see who can have the most hideous plastic surgery?

My first step toward Palin hate was the realization that she is not (the assurances of people in that crowd, assurances I had made a little blogosphere bank on notwithstanding), repeat not a “libertarian Republican” in any meaningful sense of the wor…

Dunno if you’ve read the Purdum hit piece on Palin in VF yet, but he indulges himself in a little second-hand pop psychology himself, claiming that numerous individuals in Alaska approached him independently to offer their diagnosis of her as suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder according to some scientific tome that apparently is a hot seller in the frozen tundra.

As regular readers know, I love Sarah Palin. (So does co-blogger M. Simon). What I don’t love, though, is this attempt by Stacy McCain to link hatred of Sarah Palin to homosexuality (which McCain sees as synonymous with Andrew Sullivan’s……